How fitting was this mid-night vision to the peculiar needs of Ja'cob at the moment! To his sense of loneliness caused by the loss of parental comradeship, God said "I will be with thee." To his feeling of poverty and homelessness, the LORD said "I will give thee all this land as an inheritance." To his despairing hopelessness for the future the promise was given "Thou shalt spread abroad to the east and to the west."
This experience of Ja'cob on the lonely plateau near Beth'el was a turning point in his life; it was a changed man who continued the journey into Mes-o-po-ta'mia. Having now been taught by the LORD through heartfelt experience, his worldly and crafty nature was turned into higher channels. It is true that Ja'cob made further mistakes in the future, and that his life was far from perfect, but he was made a much better man by the vision.
Ja'cob then walked on toward the east. Crossing the rugged mountain slopes to the Jor'dan valley, he waded across the river. Then he moved on over high plateaus and across the valleys until he reached the land from which his mother had come many, many years before. Here he lived for more than twenty years, and our next story will tell some of his experiences during that time.
